Racing 92 add to Saracens' misery
MATCH REPORT: It is clear that it’s going to be a long Champions Cup season for titleholders Saracens.
The defending Champions opened their campaign with a 10-30 defeat to Racing 92 in Paris, adding to their off-field Premiership salary cap drama.
*For more info read: SARACENS SET TO ACCEPT PUNISHMENT
For Racings the win means that they picked up all five points to move top of Champions Cup Pool 4.
Racing scrumhalf Maxime Machenaud missed an early penalty kick but got another chance two minutes later, slotting over to put the hosts three ahead after seven minutes.
It was a blistering start for Racing who would then steal at the line-out and exploit a hole in the Saracens defence, with Virimi Vakatawa powering his way through and over the try line at the posts.
The two sides traded successful penalty kicks from Ben Spencer and Machenaud before Racing broke away for their second try of the match.
Advantage was being played and it went all the way out to wing Teddy Thomas who just did enough to get over the try line in the corner with a delightful composed finish.
Racing dominated the start of the second half but conceded first after a poor pass from Machenaud to Donnacha Ryan who knocked on, allowing Nick Tompkins to rip the ball out and sprint for the line before a pass to Lozowski who did the rest.
That was as good as it got for the defending champions as Finn Russell then exploded into life with a stunning try of his own.
A dummy kick from the Scottish fly-half started the move and released some space for Thomas who was brought down inside the 22. The ball would find Russell again and he jinked inside and out before charging through a gap in the line and scoring, to the delight of the replacements behind the posts.
Racing would then bring up the bonus point with just under 15 minutes left to play when the driving maul did the damage as Wenceslas Lauret broke away to score with relative ease.
Saracens host Ospreys in their Round 2 clash next week while Racing 92 take on Munster Rugby in Limerick for what is a mouth-watering tie at Thomond Park.
The scorers:
For Racing92:
Tries: Vakatawa, Thomas, Russell, Lauret
Cons: Machenaud 2
Pens: Machenaud 2
For Saracens:
Try: Lozowski
Con: Spencer
Pen: Spencer
Yellow card: Tom Whiteley (Saracens, 73)
Teams:
Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 12 Henry Chavancy (captain), 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Boris Palu, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Cedate Gomes Sa, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Eddy Ben Arous.
Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Hassane Kolingar, 18 Ali Oz, 19 Dominic Bird, 20 Yoan Tanga, 21 Teddy Iribaren, 22 Ben Volavola, 23 Simon Zebo.
Saracens: 15 Matt Gallagher, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Alex Lozowski, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Roti Segun, 10 Manu Vunipola, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Jackson Wray (captain), 7 Ben Earl, 6 Nick Isiekwe, 5 Callum Hunter-Hill, 4 Will Skelton, 3 Titi Lamositele, 2 Jack Singleton, 1 Rhys Carre.
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray, 17 Sam Crean, 18 Vincent Koch, 19.Joel Kpoku, 20 Sean Reffell, 21 Tom Whiteley,22 22 Damian Willemse, 23 Duncan Taylor.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Stuart Gaffkin (Ireland), Paul Haycock (Ireland)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)
Source: @ChampionsCup
